Super-famous Instagranimals and their owners

I turn my back and he's being hilarious. I could spend all day long documenting what he's doingAmber Chavez, Manny the Frenchie's owner

It all starts with a puppy photo. There are likes, retweets, regrams, comments, encouragement and lulz. And followers.

Then a jaunty little hat or a pair of teeny sunglasses. Babiators look good.

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More followers. You swap your smartphone for a 600D. Companies start sending outfits for your pooch to model. Sooner or later, your pet becomes a brand. You are merely your pet's owner.

This is the story of the people behind some of the most popular animal social media accounts. The owners of Princess Monster Truck, Manny the Frenchie, Pudge the Cat, Hamilton the Hipster Cat, Menswear Dog and Jamon the Pig. What started as a hobby has become a business -- or at least a sideline -- for some of these people.

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On Valentine's Day in 2013, Andrea Mendes's husband eschewed roses in favour of giving her a piglet called Jamon. Like any self-respecting pet owner in a digital age, she created an Instagram account and a Facebook page -- Mendes works at Facebook in Brazil -- to document her housebound porcine pal.

Jamon is bilingual, posting in both Portuguese and English.

Clever little piggy. Mendes has worked hard to create a "voice", while purchasing a staggering array of outfits for him to model, including wings, a zebra onesie, an owl costume and, of course, a Brazilian football shirt. Mendes always makes sure that Jamon is on top of his correspondence: "Jamon answers everything. Even bullies," she told Wired.co.uk.

Mendes has more than a decade of experience in digital marketing, most recently at Facebook. "I learned a lot about how content is important for a brand or celebrity, as a tool for building a direct relationship with customers or fans," she explains. She spends around four hours per day working on Jamon's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, plus more time over the weekend when she takes photos of her pet. The year of hard work has paid off: Jamon has already appeared in a TV ad for a car company called Webmotors and a music video for singer Fernanda Takai. "Besides that, Jamon will become a cartoon in October and is already a registered trademark in many countries," she adds.

Jamon's newfound fame has been weird for Mendes. "Everything is unusual when you have a pet pig. Even more if it's a celebrity pig.

Jamon is both our pet and a character, and that's confusing for people." She adds that Jamon is invited to birthday parties, charity rallies and to appear in music videos and "the confusing part is each one of them has a different expectation of how Jamon could help them".

Despite this, Andrea is keen to make sure she never forgets why she started in the first place: "To bring joy to people's lives. If we put a smile on someone's face, we're happy." +++

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Princess Monster Truck is a New York-based Persian cat with an unusual jawline that leaves her lower teeth protruding from her jaw. Artists Tracy Timmons and Joseph Bryce took her in after finding her wandering in the streets. Timmons started to post pictures of Princess Monster Truck (PMT) to her own account initially, before launching a dedicated Instagram account. Her intention was to encourage other people to adopt and rescue pets, but Buzzfeed featured PMT and the story went viral. PMT became an internet celebrity and brands and charities started to get in touch.

Timmons and Bryce only work with companies that they feel "reflect the level of integrity we hope to convey through our crazy rescued cat". A portion of any money they make goes to animal shelters.

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Along with endorsements, the couple has also moved into merchandise: designing clothing adorned with PMT's face. "Recently, I've been working with artists to design our T-shirts, which feature our cat Princess Monster Truck. The artist receives a small flat stipend and then also gets to choose a non-profit shelter or animal cause they would like to sponsor and we donate a portion of the T-shirt proceeds to the shelter they choose," explains Timmons to Wired.co.uk.

The audience growth has happened organically. "I find the less I try -- the more I just make the weird cat videos that amuse me, and post things that immediately come to my head -- the better and more

'liked' the posts are."

Comedy seems to come naturally to the animal: "Princess Monster Truck is really funny. Animals in general are really funny and a human trying to relate or anthropomorphise animals is usually a really funny situation," Timmons tells Wired.co.uk.

As an artist, Timmons finds the visual side of documenting PMT relatively easy, but she finds some of the conventions of communicating on social media -- for example, using hashtags -- "weird". This led her to use absurdly long hashtags that would never be helpful for linking to other people's pictures.

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Maintaining PMT's social media profile takes around an hour per day, depending on the cat's mood, but the admin around it -- responding to emails, sorting out deals -- takes at least one full day every week. "Sometimes she's more camera friendly than others.

I don't have a nice camera, so timing is everything."

The strangest opportunity to arise through the cat, was when American Express came forward to feature Timmons and PMT in a video, in return for a "sizeable donation" to the Sean Casey Animal Rescue. "I was really nervous about physically appearing in the video, because let's face it, I know everyone just wants to see the cat, but everyone in the project made it really fun and were so encouraging.

I was really proud of the outcome."

So what's next for PMT? "We've always really wanted Princess Monster Truck to host a show which would feature some of our favourite things: educating people about unique and endangered animals, funny cat antics and maybe some rock 'n' roll music. For kids and adult alike," Timmons explains.

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Manny the Frenchie is a three-year-old French bulldog who lives with owners Amber Chavez and Jon Huang and four other dogs in Chicago.

When the couple first got Manny, Chavez started to post a few pictures to her personal Instagram account. "But we noticed other people creating pages for their pets and thought it would be fun to post as Manny," she told Wired.co.uk.

Manny's account started to pick up traction. "We weren't trying to get followers, but in about a year we hit 14,000 followers,"

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It was around that point when American Apparel came knocking to partner to make T-shirts. "At this point we realised we could partner with people and give the proceeds to charity." Chavez and Huang then became more strategic in their approach, using hashtags and posting at certain popular times of the day. They put Manny into little outfits, but found that he "just does loads of funny things" anyway. "I turn my back and he's being hilarious. I could spend all day long documenting what he's doing."

In addition to merchandise, there are quarterly Manny events where people can come and meet the popular pooch. Brands are also keen to send their products to Manny in the hope that they might feature in a post -- sometimes they will pay a fee for the privilege. Amber says that they will only feature products that Manny or one of the other dogs -- Frank, Filip, Liam and Leila -- like. These other dogs also have burgeoning social media careers --

Frank (also a Frenchie) has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram.

For Chavez, who used to work in hospitality, it has turned into a full-time job. Huang continues to run his own marketing business Beatnik. "The dream would be to make a proper living out of this and have our own foundation for Manny and Friends. We could have a ranch with a big rescue centre." +++

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Hamilton the Hipster Cat

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He isn't just a cute cat. He has ideas, opinions, a job -- he has a real lifeJay Stowe, Hamilton's owner

Hamilton is a grey rescue cat with what looks like a perfectly-formed hipster moustache emblazoned across his lips. He is owned by stand-up comedian Jay Stowe, who adopted Hamilton in 2012 from a shelter as a "very shy and super-skittish" kitten.

According to Stowe, Hamilton had been a feral cat, found by one of the volunteers at the shelter. It took a while for Hamilton to be drawn into the limelight. "The first month I had him, he had to live in my bathroom and then when he decided to move out he took up residence in my closet for the next month," he told Wired.co.uk.

Despite this, Hamilton's unique appearance made Stowe smile every time he looked at him. "I figured, why not start an Instagram page to have an album and to be able to share that with everyone," he explains. "I always knew he was adorable and unique, but it was only after I started and saw the response that I knew he had potential to be very popular."

Beyond simply posting pictures of his moustachioed cat, Jay started to develop Hamilton's "voice". "He isn't just a cute cat.

He has ideas, opinions, a job -- he has a real life," says Stowe.

Since working on Hamilton's social media accounts, Stowe has started to figure out what kind of pictures get the best response and the times posts get the most traction. He spends a lot of time responding to his cat's followers, dubbed "The Ham Army". "They are such an amazing group of people and they are so creative," he says. "There are times when one of Hamilton's pictures or videos go viral and I won't know until people contact me to tell me about it.

Creating the content isn't the hard part for Stowe. "Hamilton is super cuddly and cute and gives you photo opportunities almost hourly," he says. However, there is a lot of admin that goes along with running the account -- whether it's setting up fundraisers, talking through campaigns, or working on a web series.

Fans can now buy Hamilton merchandise -- calendars, T-shirts and greetings cards with the kitteh's face on. Further more, lots of companies send him products or campaigns to promote, although Stowe says he turns down 99.9 percent of them.

There is also a mobile app in the pipeline and Stowe says he'd "love to do some sort of Hamilton plush". There are lots of request for Hamilton to make TV and event appearances but, Stowe says, "given Hamilton's personality and what's in his best interest, I don't travel anywhere with him". "Turning Hamilton into a profitable business has never been my focus. We work much more heavily on the non-profit end of things," he says. This means partnering with charities and adoption centres throughout the US. Currently Stowe is even running a campaign offering up Hamilton's enormously successful Instagram account to a non-profit animal welfare organisation. Followers can vote for the shelter of their choice and the winner will takeover the account (@hamilton_the_hipster_cat) with 550,000 followers. Hamilton will be moving over to

@the_moustache_cat, which currently has more than 100,000 followers. +++

Menswear Dog

We get contacted by brands all the time that want to collaborate on sponsored posts, but we try not to take on anything that that doesn't feel rightDave Fung, Menswear Dog's owner

It all started when husband-and-wife Dave Fung and Yena Kim -- both designers in New York -- were on holiday and decided to snap a quick photo of their shiba inu Bhodi in some of Dave's clothes. "The photo came out surprisingly human-looking," Fung told Wired.co.uk, "there was just something that lit up when we shot him, so we decided to quickly build a Tumblr page with a few more photos." "The internet got a hold of it and it took off."

And so started Menswear Dog. Early on, the pictures got picked up by high-profile sites like GQ and Complex. This helped to build momentum, and spurred Fung and Kim to take more photos using a high-fashion aesthetic. It wasn't long before fashion brands started to contact them, wanting to get their clothes on the stylish canine. "We get contacted by brands all the time that want to collaborate on sponsored posts, but we try not to take on anything that that doesn't feel right," he explains. Many of the deals include promoting or modelling for fashion and beauty retailers such as Gilt, Revlon and Hudson Shoes. The biggest challenge has been keeping the quality of posts consistent and honest. "We try to post as much as we can, without too much filler content, and we also try to make it very clear when we're being sponsored for a post."

Fung and Kim are also finalising a book -- a style guide for men made up of photos of Bhodi in clothes -- and they have plans to develop some menswear-inspired dog clothes and accessories. "Menswear Dog keeps us pretty busy," Fung explains. Both he and Kim are freelance designers, but both describe it as a "part-time job". "The whole thing is so absurd," he says. "Books, television appearances, calendars, half a million followers. It's all nutty.

We never expected any of this, but we'll certainly take advantage of the opportunities that are coming our way. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience and so far we're having a blast."

They would both love to see Bodhi land a national advertising campaign for a big fashion brand. "Oh and I still need to see him walk down a fashion runway just once," adds Fung.

Are there any rivalries with other social media animal stars? "Grumpy Cat is probably the social media animal right now. He's just killing it. If only Menswear Dog was grumpier," Fung jokes, before adding that there are "no tabloid rivalries here". "It's all love in the social media animal kingdom." +++

Pudge the Cat

Pudge is a four-year-old tortoiseshell, flat-faced cat. An exotic shorthair, to be precise.

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She is owned by freelance graphic designer Kady Lone, and has a moustache that rivals Hamilton's. Lone got into Instagram during a period of unemployment. "While looking for work, I decided to start posting daily photos of Pudge onto my personal Instagram account."

After a while, Lone's account was 100 percent cat pictures, and gaining followers in droves. "I can't say I know the exact formula for generating a large audience," Lone tells Wired.co.uk, but she thinks it's to do with "witty captions" and the fact that the photos are taken with "a real camera". "And Pudge's unique personality shining through the photos." Turning Pudge into a business is "not a priority" for Lone, she says. So far Pudge hasn't done any paid endorsements and Kady only started to sell merchandise because people "request that we sell coffee mugs with Pudge's face on them because their aunt would totally love one". "If it [turning Pudge into a business] happens that way, I guess that's cool, but my priority is to keep doing what has made Pudge as popular as she is now by continuing to post cute photos and videos."

Coming up with fresh ideas isn't always easy, but "if she's doing something cute, I'll stop and capture it", says Lone. Despite the pressure to create new content, Kady says there's no rivalry with other social media animal owners -- "anyone I meet is always more than happy to share their experiences and chat about cat stuff". +++